The people

I'm with Pastor Mondon, Natasha and her cousin in this picture. Pastor Mondon is actually from Sabah and has moved to Kampung Bukit Serok to serve the orang asli here. He has been there for 8 months. It's not easy for him as he has 5 children, the youngest being 1.5 years old. Both he and his wife, Ps Liyu are pastors. Ps Liyu is an amazing woman. She herself is a pastor and is often very busy looking after the children, cooking, serving and supporting Ps Mondon.

Realized the importance of partnership in ministry. For example, when they go out to do visitation, both of them go together. The reason being that this is still a conservative society, and it's better for both of them to go together so that Ps Liyu can talk to the widows while Ps Mondon can talk to the men. It would be inappropriate there if Ps Mondon is to go out alone and visit people's houses if only the womanfolk are at home. The same applies to Ps Liyu. Both of them also support and encourage each other; being new to the village, they are often disappointed and rejected at times.

The children of Kampung Bukit Serok are plentiful as each family have more than 5 children. There are also a lot of special children there. It's probably due to inter-marriage among kin in the village as the village has a population of 3000-4000. The children are very active, and being the conservative med student, it's at times worrying when I see boys climb up 10 feet trees! Children as young as 10 also zip around the village on motorcycles.

(Yes, I am shades darker now...to add to my already tanned skin. Had a very funny conversation with my Mum this morning. The first thing she asked me when she called me at 9.30 in the morning was not "How's the trip?" etc. But "Did you put on weight?" "Are you darker now?" Haha... but yea, she's really great because she allows me to go everywhere even after numerous accidents. And she just listened to the van woes (our van broke down! Had to push it in the pouring rain) without worrying or banning me from going again...